Performance analysis of deep borehole heat exchangers for decarbonization of heating systems

Meeting the climate change mitigation targets will require a substantial shift from fossil to clean fuels in the heating sector.Heat pumps with deep borehole exchangers are a promising solution to reduce emissions.Here the thermal behavior of deep borehole exchangers(DBHEs)ranging from 1 to 2 km was analyzed for various heat flow profiles.A strong correlation between thermal energy extraction and power output from DBHEs was found,also influenced by the heating profile employed.Longer operating time over the year typically resulted in higher energy production,while shorter one yielded higher average thermal power output,highlighting the importance of the choice of heating strategy and system design for optimal performance of DBHEs.Short breaks in operation for regenerating the borehole,for example,with waste heat,proved to be favorable for the performance yielding an overall heat output close to the same as with continuous extraction of heat.The results demonstrate the usefulness of deep boreholes for dense urban areas with less available space.As the heat production from a single DBHE in Finnish conditions ranges from half up to even a few GWh a year,the technology is best suitable for larger heat loads.

Effect of the Arrangement of a New-Type of Turbulator Inserts on Heat Pipe Exchanger Performances

This research tests the effect of introducing turbulators of a new type into a circular tube heat exchanger under a constant and uniform longitudinal heatflux condition.A 45 mm diameter copper tube with a length of 1,350 mm is utilized with a solid disk being inserted inside the tube,which consists of three sections,each one containing two slots.The slot is cut at a 45 degree angle toward the inner tube surface,which results in diverging theflow toward the inner hot tube surface in order to enhance the heat transfer process.Air is considered as the workingfluid with Prandtl number 0.71.The Reynolds number spans the interval from 6,000–13,500,which indicates that the consideredflow is turbulent.The heat exchanger performance is studied and analyzed in terms of average Nusselt number.The experimental results show that the Nusselt number value is directly proportional to the increase of the Reynolds number,and the number of turbulators inserts.With the use of three novel turbulators,the heat transfer was about 3.15 times higher than that in the smooth tube and the friction factor was about 1.11.

Localized Theoretical Analysis of Thermal Performance of Individually Finned Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger for Air Conditioning with Freon R404A as Working Fluid

This work contributes to the improvement of energy-saving in air conditioning systems. The objective is to apply the thermal efficiency of heat exchangers for localized determination of the thermal performance of heat exchangers with individually finned heat pipes. The fundamental parameters used for performance analysis were the number of fins per heat pipe, the number of heat pipes, the inlet temperatures, and the flow rates of hot and cold fluids. The heat exchanger under analysis uses Freon 404A as a working fluid in an air conditioning system for cooling in the Evaporator and energy recovery in the Condenser. The theoretical model is localized and applied individually to the Evaporator, Condenser, and heat exchanger regions. The results obtained through the simulation are compared with experimental results that use a global approach for the heat exchanger. The thermal quantities obtained through the theoretical model in the mentioned regions are air velocity, Nusselt number, thermal effectiveness, heat transfer rate, and outlet temperature. The comparisons made with global experimental results are in excellent agreement, demonstrating that the localized theoretical approach developed is consistent and can be used as a comprehensive analysis tool for heat exchangers using heat pipes.

Localized Theoretical Analysis of Thermal Performance of Individually Finned Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger for Air Conditioning with Freon R404A as Working Fluid

This work contributes to the improvement of energy-saving in air conditioning systems. The objective is to apply the thermal efficiency of heat exchangers for localized determination of the thermal performance of heat exchangers with individually finned heat pipes. The fundamental parameters used for performance analysis were the number of fins per heat pipe, the number of heat pipes, the inlet temperatures, and the flow rates of hot and cold fluids. The heat exchanger under analysis uses Freon 404A as a working fluid in an air conditioning system for cooling in the Evaporator and energy recovery in the Condenser. The theoretical model is localized and applied individually to the Evaporator, Condenser, and heat exchanger regions. The results obtained through the simulation are compared with experimental results that use a global approach for the heat exchanger. The thermal quantities obtained through the theoretical model in the mentioned regions are air velocity, Nusselt number, thermal effectiveness, heat transfer rate, and outlet temperature. The comparisons made with global experimental results are in excellent agreement, demonstrating that the localized theoretical approach developed is consistent and can be used as a comprehensive analysis tool for heat exchangers using heat pipes.

Research on Performance of Ground-Source Heat Pump Double U Underground Pipe Heat Exchange

This paper uses FLUENT software building the three-dimensional unsteady state model of ground source heat pump single U and double U underground pipe to study on heat exchange of underground pipe system in the condition of unsteady state long-term continuous running, analyzes the change of soil temperature filed around underground pipe and performance of underground pipe heat exchange between single U and double U pipe system. The results show that double U pipe system is better than single U system, which can improve unit depth heat exchange efficiency, reduce the number of wells and reduce the initial investment.

Strong self-flushing technique for heat exchanger of sewage source heat pump system

To better remove the contamination on the surface of a heat-exchanger in urban sewage source heat pump system （USSHPS）, this paper analyzes the feasibility of strong self-flushing on the basis of experiments and presents a new on-line self-flushing technique, which alternately flushes part of heat transfer tubes. In addition, operation principles and the structure of the new heat-exchanger are introduced and the feasible economi- cal and technological cleaning plans are given by design calculation and scheme comparison. The result shows that keeping each tube washed for one minute with 5 m/s, the operating cost is lower than ￥5 and when one flushing pump ahemately flushes 10-20 heat exchangers, the saved costs of flushing 10 tubes alternately are over 4 times of the increased costs.

Experimental Investigation on System with Combination of Ground-Source Heat Pump and Solar Collector

This paper presents the heating performance and energy distribution of a system with the combination of ground-source heat pump and solar collector or a solar-assisted ground-source heat pump system (SAGSHPS) by calculation and experiment.The results show that the average absolute error is less than 0.6 ℃ and the relative error is less than 5% under the pulse load when the analytical solution to the 2-D solid cylindrical source model is used for the SAGSHPS.The coefficient of performance (COP) of the SAGSHPS is 2.95-4.70.The average fluid temperature in the borehole heat exchanger can increase by 3 ℃ with the assistance of solar collector,which will improve the COP of the heat pump by approximately 10% from the experimental data.The energy contributions to the total heating load of soil,electricity and solar are 56.30%,36.87% and 6.83%,respectively.

Numerical Simulation and Optimization of a Mid-Temperature Heat Pipe Exchanger

In this paper,we take the mid-temperature gravity heat pipe exchanger as the research object,simulate the fluid flow field,temperature field and the working state of heat pipe in the heat exchanger by Fluent software.The effects of different operating parameters and fin parameters on the heat transfer performance of heat exchangers are studied.The results show that the heat transfer performance of the mid-temperature gravity heat pipe exchanger is the best when the fin spacing is between 5 mm and 6 mm,the height of the heat pipe is between 12 mm and 13 mm,and the inlet velocity of the fluid is between 2.5 m/s to 3 m/s.

Optimal design of the separate type heat pipe heat exchanger

Separate type heat pipe heat exchangers are often used for large-scale heat exchanging. The arrangement of such a heat exchanger conveniently allows heat input to and output from the heat exchanger at remote locations. The traditional method of designing an ordinary HPHE (heat pipe heat exchanger) is commonly applied in the separate type exchanger design, but the calculations have to be carried out separately, which makes it very complicated. In this work, the ε-NTU (effectiveness-Number of Transfer Units) method was applied for optimization analysis of single- or multi-level separate type heat pipe heat exchangers. An optimizing formula for single-level separate type heat pipe heat exchangers was obtained. The optimizing principles of effec- tiveness-NTU and heat transfer rate by the equal distribution method for multi-level separate type heat pipe heat exchanger are presented. The design of separate type heat pipe heat exchangers by the optimizing method is more convenient and faster than by the traditional method.

Heat Transport Study of the Laminar Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger

The purpose of this experiment is to analyze the performance of the Laminar Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger. The test samples were divided two groups, one is the metal corrugated sheet with heat pipe, and the other is the metal corrugated sheet only. By dipping these two group samples into hot water and to see the thermal image by Infrared thermal imager. The results shown the temperature risen of the sheet with heat pipe was faster than that of the sheet without heat pipe. In addition, the bigger of the temperature difference between hot water temperature and ambient temperature, the quicker of the temperature risen for the metal corrugated sheet, and the temperature of the metal corrugated sheet were homogenous as well. For example, when the water temperature is 30℃, ambient temperature is 20℃, the metal corrugated sheet with heat pipe rise rapidly to 26℃ within 1 minute, while the metal corrugated sheet without heat pipe rise to 22℃ only, this temperature difference would be more obvious with the increasing of the hot water temperature. When the hot water temperature is up to 40℃, the metal corrugated sheet with heat pipe rise rapidly to 31℃ within 1 minute, while the metal corrugated sheet without het pipe is still rise up to 22℃ only. When the hot water temperature is up to 50℃, The metal corrugated sheet with heat pipe rise rapidly to 33℃ within 1 minute, while the sheet without heat pipe still keep at 22℃, the results shown the heat pipe affect the temperature rising speed is obvious, and it also implying heat pipe is a very important parameter for the heat transfer rate of the Laminar Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger.

Development of Submersible Corrugated Pipe Sewage Heat Exchanger

Based on the characteristics of heat transfer for corrugated pipe,a method of calculating and design on the submersible corrugated pipe sewage heat exchanger was put forward theoretically and experimentally.The actual movement parameters of air-conditioning system used in this heat exchanger were measured.The experimental result shows that the quantity of heat transfer of the corrugated pipe sewage heat exchanger can satisfy the building's load with the average coefficient of performance 4.55.At the same time,the quantity of heat transfer of the corrugated pipe sewage heat exchanger was compared with that of the other nonmetallic sewage heat exchangers(i.e.,the plastic-Al pipe sewage heat exchanger and PP-R pipe sewage heat exchanger)experimentally.It is found out that the effect of heat transfer for submersible corrugated pipe sewage heat exchanger is superior to those of the plastic-Al pipe and the PP-R pipe.The quantity of heat transfer per mile of corrugated pipe sewage heat exchanger is 5.2 times as much as that of the plastic-Al pipe,and it is 8.1 times as much as that of PP-R pipe.

Experiments Using Capillary Mat as Ground Heat Exchanger for Ground Source Heat Pump Heating Application

The cooling and heating of spaces are among the largest sources for household’s energy demand. Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) is a promising technology to reduce the energy for cooling and heating purposes. However, the major obstacle hindering the utilization of this technology is the high initial cost, especially for the installation of ground coupled heat exchanger. The horizontal closed-loop system offers lower installation cost, as it requires no vertical borehole construction. Instead, the heat exchangers can be installed in shallow trenches that may be excavated, by small excavator or even by human labor. This paper presents the comparison of two different heat exchangers, namely, the capillary mat and the widely used slinky pipe. Both heat exchangers are connected to a heat pump, where continuous heating tests were carried out for 165 hours (~7 days) for each configuration. The purpose of this research is to show the performance of capillary mat in comparison to slinky pipe. Despite during the entire test for capillary mat required 6% higher electricity consumption, compared to slinky heat exchanger, the results still suggest the potential use of capillary mat as alternative to slinky heat exchanger. Additionally, the results also highlight the high hydraulic resistance of installed capillary mat heat exchangers may become the major disadvantage of the capillary mat.

Performance of an R410a Filled Loop Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger

A simple theoretical model of a heat pipe heat exchanger （HPHE） based on the ε-NTU method is presented. An iterative computer program was developed to predict the overall effectiveness of a counter-flow air-air loop heat pipe heat exchanger （LHPHE）. A thermal resistance network approach for a single thermosyphon was first considered to determine the overall heat transfer coefficients and the NTU＇s for the evaporator and condenser sections. The model incorporated previously determined evaporating and condensing coefficients. The overall effectiveness of the 6, 4 and 2 row LHPHE was then predicted. The theoretical overall effectiveness was compared with experimental data obtained from a R410a filled LHPHE. The experimental overall effectiveness results compared very well with the simulated values, The results showed that the 6 row arrangement performed better than the 4 or 2 row arrangement in the experiment.

Research on ground heat exchanger of Ground Source Heat Pump technique

Ground Source Heat Pump technique and its operating principle are described in this paper. Ground heat exchanger is the key technique of ground source heat pump and its patterns are discussed. Software is helpful to design ground heat exchanger. A project of Chinese Ground Source Heat Pump is introduced and its market is more and more extensive.

Energy saving analysis of a hybrid ground-coupled heat pump project

A hybrid ground-coupled heat pump（HGCHP）project in Nanjing,China is chosen to analyze the building energy-consumption properties in terms of different control strategies,building envelope and the terminal air-conditioning system.The HGCHP uses a supplemental heat rejecter to dissipate extra thermal energy to guarantee underground soil heat balance.The software EnergyPlus is employed to simulate the project and design the heat flow of the cooling tower and the borehole heat exchanger（BHE）.Then two feasible control strategies for the cooling tower and the borehole heat exchanger are proposed.The energy-saving potential of the building envelope is analyzed in terms of the surface color of the wall/roof.With the same terminal system,it is found that in the cooling season the heat flow of the insulated building with black wall/roof is 1.2 times more than that with white wall/roof.With the same insulated building and gray wall/roof,it is concluded that the heat pump units for a primary air fan-coil system show an annual energy consumption increase of 44.7 GJ compared with a radiant floor system.

Numerical simulation of heat release performance of filling body under condition of heat extracted by fluid flowing in buried tube

It is the basic requirement of the synergetic exploitation of deep mineral resources and geothermal resources to arrange the heat transfer tube in filling body. The heat release performance of filling body directly impacts on the exploiting efficiency of geothermal energy. Based on heat transfer theory, a three-dimensional unsteady heat transfer model of filling body is established by using FLUENT simulation software. Taking the horizontal U-shaped buried pipe as research object, the variation of temperature field in filling body around buried pipe is analyzed during the heat release process of filling body;the initial temperature of filling body, the diameter of buried pipe, the inlet temperature and inlet velocity of heat transfer fluid influencing of coupling heat transfer, which exists between heat transfer fluid and surrounding filling body within a certain axial distance of buried tube, and influencing of temperature difference between inlet and outlet of heat transfer fluid and on heat transfer performance of filling body are also discussed. It not only lays a theoretical foundation for the synergetic exploitation of mineral resources and geothermal energy in deep mines, but also provides a reference basis for the arrangement of buried pipes in filling body as well as the selection of working conditions for heat transfer fluid.

Arrangement Strategy of Ground Heat Exchanger with Groundwater

The orientation strategy of side pipe and the heat transfer performance of six ground heat exchangers(GHEs) were optimized by numerical simulation,with soil being treated as a porous medium.An experiment on the heat transfer of four GHEs was carried out in 2010.Results indicate that the velocity field is disturbed by GHEs.The optimal orientation strategy of side pipe is that the upward pipe is located upstream and the downward pipe downstream.The space between GHEs should be appropriately adjusted,depending on the direction and flow velocity.Groups of GHEs should be installed perpendicular to the mainstream in a single row,but if the acreage does not meet the requirements,GHEs should be installed in staggered multiple rows.Fewer GHEs parallel to the mainstream strengthen the heat transfer.Moreover,numerical results agree well with the test data,with the maximum relative error being less than 7.7%.

Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer Characteristics of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchanger in Frozen Soil Layer

A simplified numerical model of heat transfer characteristics of horizontal ground heat exchanger (GHE) in the frozen soil layer is presented and the steady-state distribution of temperature field is simulated. Numerical results show that the frozen depth mainly depends on the soil′s moisture content and ambient temperature. The heat transfer loss of horizontal GHE tends to grow with the increase of the soil′s moisture content and the decrease of ambient temperature. Backfilled materials with optimal thermal conductivity can reduce the thermal loss effectively in the frozen soil. The applicability of the Chinese national standard “Technical Code for Ground Source Heat Pump (GB 50366-2005)” is verified. For a ground source heat pump project, the feasible layout of horizontal GHE should be determined based on the integration of the soil′s structure, backfilled materials, weather data, and economic analysis.

Heat transfer analysis and experimental verification of cast heat exchanger

From the viewpoints of environmental conservation and energy efficiency,seawater-source heat pump system(SWHP) to provide district cooling and heating is applied in coastal areas.Based on the system,a heat transfer model was established for cast heat exchanger(CHE) adopted by SWHP systems.The CHE consists of pipes immersed in the seawater and used for transferring heat between the seawater and the heat exchanger pipes of SWHP system.An experimental study was carried out to test the validity of the model.A program was developed in VB language and the effects of inlet temperature,flow rate of the secondary refrigerant and length of CHE on the results were investigated.The results of the numerical simulation are in consistence with the experiments in both winter and summer conditions.As a result,application of SWHP systems with CHE in coastal areas in China is feasible due to the favorable geographical conditions and environment.

Field evaluation of a ground-coupled heat pump in hot-summer and cold-winter regions

The experimental performance of small-sized ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) is researched intensively. However, there are little data documenting the operation performance of existing large-sized GCHP system. We presented the actual performance measurement of a GCHP installed for apartment buildings in Wuhan, Hubei province, P. R. China. The system was constructed with a closed vertical typed ground heat exchanger with a total pipe length of 32 000 m. During one year, various operating parameters were monitored, including the outdoor temperature, the flow rate, the electrical consumption, and the water temperature. The seasonal coefficients of performances of the heat pumps and the system based on the measured data were found to be 4.01 and 2.96 in the cooling season, and 3.54 and 2.86 in the heating season, respectively. The GCHP system was more economical than the air-source room air conditioner in the energy efficiency which was increased by 29% in cooling mode and 50% in heating mode. There was an obvious heat imbalance of soil between the injection rate and the extraction rate in the residential GCHP system operation.